Our Educational Message

Hi, and welcome to our blog. This space is designed to share ideas and methodologies that we use to teach Turkish teenagers. In particular, there is a strong focus on ICT-ELT, which means if you like visual and technological support for your style of teaching, this blog is for you. My colleague, Brentson Ramsey, has been working alongside me for three years. He is also a big proponent of the ICT-ELT Paradigm, which means he will also be posting from his own teaching perspective on the blog.

2010 was the beginning of this new journey, and although there is no definitive ICT-ELT road map available for everyone to follow, it is exciting to explore the technological means to make teaching more fun and affective for students. Our main message is for teachers to ADOPT & ADAPT the paradigm shift for their own needs, and remember that ICT-ELT is a TOOL, NOT a SOLUTION.

Monday, 18 March 2013

INNOVATION ZONE 2: Follow-Up Post

With the reality of the 25th week of teaching firmly done and in
place, one is struck with the usual feelings of frustration, disappointment,
anger, irritation, sadness and most of all, fatigue as teachers. So, how
better than when least expecting it we were witness to one of the best moments
in near twenty years of teaching, last Friday. The
INNOVATION ZONE, which we sent out information via this platform across the
blogosphere, had its first student-presentations on the subject of BULLYING. Since
we have been doing that as part of our syllabus we felt it right for students
to produce their own materials and wow us with what they come up with. THAT
THEY DID. The students gave forth astounding
presentations that my colleague and I had no hand in developing, molding or
editing in any way. The links to their amazing films and power points are below. The
subsequent discussions led to ideas of making the films available school wide
with the Hazirlik (preparatory) students doing sessions with all school grade levels, in
order to get the school message out that bullying can never be a part of school
life. If students believe that they can make a difference, then why shouldn't we?

Here are the links to their presentations that I feel you will get so much from. Remember, most of these students came to us in September with very weak study skills, no motivation or desire to do anything academic or creative, plus their English was poor.

They made a survey of students from middle school that led to several examples of bullied students. It was every emotional to listen to the sad stories of students under our very own roof. They plan to mentor these students for the next few months and be like study-buddies. They also made their own video reenacting some social and cyber-bullying which is prevalent all over nowadays

They collaborated with students from two other private schools to make their video for awareness of the problem. This incredible coordination, collaboration and joint outcomes had everyone's jaw dropping. The sheer determination to make t-shirts designed by Basak, then make a video with their own messages was impressive.

This group went one stage further and interviewed third-graders and how they felt about bullying. Again we could see form the little kids faces that even the very sound of the word bullying made them cringe. This for me is incredible, and shows how necessary it is for us all to focus on what bullying does to everyone unfortunate enough. They alos got together out of school and prepared pictures using make-up and scenario which were designed to shock, and that they did.

Middle-school students tend to be the group that has most issues with bullying, or at least reported. So to see students show a message with sadness, then rip up their feelings of joy was inspirational and emotional. We believe this group really tapped into the seriousness of the subject of bullying.

Calvin and Hobbes is arguably one of the most well-known comic strips around the world. There is a small part inside all of us that conn...

Visual Learning

Video tutorials are a major part of our curriculum as they provide an engaging way to present media to our students. We use video tutorials in a variety of ways, ranging from grammar to class activities to thematically-based units.We have tutorials available on both Blendspace and Tildee.Click on the images below to see our list of video tutorials.

Our Recommended ICT Tools

Twitter

Edpuzzle

Scoop.It!

Touchcast

Remind101

Kahoot

Camtasia

Apple IMovie

Microsoft PowerPoint

Google Chrome

500 px

Study Blue

Contributors

Pages

We are at a crossroads of change in ELT, now where have I heard that before?

Hi, Everyone, I have been teaching ESL as an ELT practitioner for nearly twenty years. After having watched many different approaches to our profession take center stage, I now see ICT-ELT as the real way forward. It is not only a new and exciting way to approach your lessons, but I believe it is a way of life for the language teacher. This may sound like a cliché, and it may well be one, but I buy into the whole concept of technology as a means to support our traditional methods of instruction so that we can further engage our students for a more rounded and fulfilling learning experience. Do I condone the abandonment from text books, explicit grammar instruction, reading novels, writing essays in favour of blogs, wikis, emails, electronic journals, PLNs, games, tablets, netbooks, social networks, IWBs? NO!!

I am a strong proponent of keeping all of the aforementioned methodological approaches, and using ICT as the primary support tool to enhance, improve and develop everything we have already into much more accessible and enjoyable materials, activities and syllabuses for our students.

This blog aims to share with you my experiences from an ICT-practitioner's perspective. I hope to convince you that by making the switch to ICT-ELT you will see how it can rejuvenate, inspire and motivate you to make a difference.

Brentson ramsey: My Hazirlik Colleague, great friend and co-blogger

I have been David's colleague and mentee for one and a half years now, and they have without doubt been the most successful and exciting years of my career thus far.

I began my ELT career six years ago in Turkey. I taught young learners for the first three years, and while enjoyable, I wished day after day to be able to have an actual conversation with my students. Nonetheless, it gave me a great insight into the ELT paradigm in Turkey, and I have the utmost respect for teachers who continue and thrive in primary school.

Then, as luck would have it, I began working in a middle school and became a colleague of David's, though we weren't working together at the time. I was teaching middle school English when David began his pilot ICT in ELT program in the prep level. I instantly became curious when I heard about the new technology being used in the classrooms, and I stopped by David's classroom as often as I could. It continued this way for several months until I was offered the opportunity to part-time the prep class in reading. Though I didn't take advantage of the technology as much as I could have at first, I felt happy to be a teacher for the first time in my career. I thoroughly enjoyed being around the 14-15 years age group. They were eager to learn, most of the time, and were fun to be around.

Towards the end of the academic year, David approached me and asked if I would be interested in teaching the prep class full-time the following year. I jumped at the opportunity, and David and I began to work and plan for the next year straight away.

I have learned so much from David over the past year. I have never met such a creative and hardworking teacher and colleague. I believe, by working together, we have come up with many methodologies, practices and activities that should get all students engaged and using English in and out of the classroom. We are pleased to have an accessible place where we can share our ideas with you.